Race Reports

It's kind of funny that what started out as having primarily race report content, has moved completely away from that topic. I've though about and even starting drafting some race reports but then, for some reason or another, I loose interest.

I think that fact in and of itself, is telling. The overall fact that honestly, I'm losing interest in racing bikes. I still love riding bikes, as much if not more than ever, but it's changing. Cathy and I have now raced steadily at a fairly high and competitive level for over a decade straight. This will actually be the 11th season. We've had some great times, met and become friends with some incredible folks and ridden and raced in many areas of New England and the country that we otherwise would not have.

However, the desire is quickly fleeting. Maybe I've lost the killer instinct that I once had, the desire to compete as much for self validation as anything. I got a small taste of success and victory and wanted more and more. It fueled the fire for years leaving me looking for bigger challenges that brought the hope of bigger successes.

But some where along the line it became hollow. When put into perspective, the relevance of said victories in the obscure sport of cycling is little more than the medal you receive. Are you better for those victories?

And then one day it all changes, and you stop winning. That's when the thrashing starts, to regain something which you have grown accustom to having, something which you are, at that point anyhow, unable to regain. This continues for some time but without looking at the real why, the root cause, no amount of struggle will help fix it.

At some point once you have figured out the root cause, you come to the cross road. Are you willing or able to make the changes to get yourself back to where you once were? Are those changes realistic and can they be made? Will it even work regardless of the changes?

For me, as much as anything, it comes down to will. Sure, I need to work harder but I also need the mindset, the edge that makes me want to suffer, that makes me want to make others suffer. The gritty truth about success in physical competition is that you not only need to be a masochist and derive joy from pain, you also need to be a sadist and enjoy inflicting pain on others.

Anyhow, I'm not sure where I am right now. We've been doing hard weekly road rides and there have been some glimpses of hope. The VOMAR ride last week, which isn't a race though it is, didn't go as well as I'd hoped. Still, given some of the challenges such as a cold that has settled hard in my lungs and won't seem to dissipate and completely frozen hands early on and course conditions that didn't suit my strengths, it wasn't all bad.

We'll see. Maybe I'll get super psyched for racing soon. Or maybe there will just be lots of epic ride reports in my future. One way or the other, I'll still be riding bikes.

Nine Hundred 71 Days

I keep saying that I'm going to stop, that I can stop any time that I want, maybe tomorrow, but not today. Compulsion, addiction.

Late last year I said at the end of the year. Early this year I said after 1500 days of pedaling a bicycle straight (which included riding on the indoor trainer at times for the first year and a half). lately I've been saying the goal is 1000 days in a row of riding a bicycle outdoors in New England, which it would seem is 29 days from today. During the winters, most of that time has been in Northern New England be it Western Maine or the Northeast kingdom of VT.

Riding outside every day, in every type of weather condition imaginable has taught me one simple lesson, the hardest part is always just getting out the door. Once you are on the bike and riding, it's all the same, all so very simple; just you and the bike. And of course whatever conditions you are dealing with be that snow, ice, rain or all of the above.

Some times you have to work at it a bit, in order to be safe, and choose your ride time and location wisely. For me though, I usually ride at the same time every day, logical after work around 5:30PM. In the winter that means it's cold and dark but that consistency gives me some semblance of familiarity, and peace.

The ride has become a daily ritual, almost a spiritual event at times, sure to happen as sure as waking on the day or going to sleep at the end. I won't lie, there are many days when the ride feels like drudgery, like a chore that simply has to be taken care of for the day, like cleaning out the kitten's litter box. I'm an excellent litter scooper and attack it like a science. It is, after all, my job. Everyone has to have a job and as I find myself lacking in gainful employ, I've adopted that as one of my few regular vocations, along with grocery shopping. It's just what I do.

And so I ride. In the back of my mind, as much because I can as I want to. My health is good so why waste perfectly good days without a physical celebration of that fact, a fact that we can not, must not, take for granted. One day that will change, whether we are present to recognize it or not.

So, as the brief sunshine is blotted by the clouds and impending rain, I look out knowing that I should get out and ride now all the while knowing that I'll probably just wait until the evening, and the pouring rain. Maybe I've become oblivious to the conditions, numbed to them, a slave to the inevitable ride that will happen, regardless. Maybe the conditions reinforce the memory of the ride which could all too easily slip away in the annals of the log, not even a memory.

Some times the most memorable rides, the ones you look most fondly and vividly back upon are the most  grim and grizzly. The late December 2015 NEK 50 mile 34 degree pouring rain ride is one of those that I will recall forever. The February 2015 nine hour 60 mile fat bike loop through remote wilderness which degraded into a slog through loose powder is another. The same fat bike loop the year before in reverse which two of us pushed each other hard to complete in only seven  hours is another. The 80 mile ride from Twin Mountain over Crawford up Bear Notch (in the snow and ice), over the Kanc and up through the bike path in Franconia Notch (also in snow and ice) and all on road bikes, with road shoes, is another. Too many to list but so many fond memories to cherish. Memories of actions through which we are self defined, or at least, I am.

In fact, a quick mental list of my all time most memorable rides includes epic rides that all had epic tales of suffering and misery. What does that tell us? I suspect we as humans are wired that way, to remember the bad as life lessons. Now what does that tell you, when those like me look fondly back at those events and worse, seek to emulate them moving forward. Gluttons? Masochists?

I choose to think of people like this as life adventurers. The road less chosen is where it's at. Life is about loops and not out and backs. Never take the same old path you've chosen before if you are presented with a new one to explore. You never know what may be down that path and you may be missing something, incredible, revealed by simply making the choice.

Ride on. Live life. #RideOutside365

Cabin Progress

Over the course of the winter I've been trying to plug along on the build out of the basement at our cabin. Work has been somewhat slow and I haven't really gotten a good block of time pieced together to continuously work on the rooms, but I'm starting to see some progress.

The first stage was to frame it in. Not a big project but it took a bit of time. My brother helped out with the main center divider wall and we got that in pretty quickly. I then decided I wanted to change the sizes of the doors I was going to use so I ended up reframing the rough openings. Again, not a big deal. Then it was on to the framing of the divider wall between the bath and the bedroom. This was had some turns to it so was a bit more complicated and also needed some heading in the floor joist to tie the stud wall in. All of the walls were anchored to the concrete basement floor with concrete screws through the pressure treated bottom sole plate. The rest of the studs were all pine but anything touching concrete was PT. I ended up using torx deck screws rather than nails as well simply because, it was easier and made it simply to make adjustments after the fact, just in case.

From there it was on to the fairly limited electrical outlets and lighting and I ran a new breaker to the sub-panel we had installed in the basement last summer. I went cheap and easy single switched wall mounted sconce lamps, two of them, centered on the wall above what would be the bed's headboard location. The one outlet I had which was on a concrete wall, I face mounted and ran through PVC conduit with a PVC outlet box.

For the small section of exposed concrete block wall, I simply painted the wall with color tinted masonry paint and left it bare rather than framing, insulating and sheathing. If it is too cold, I can always do something in the future but I spent 3 years living in an uninsulated cinderblock dorm at UVM and it was just fine. Sure, I'm losing heat but insulating a basement in a climate with deep penetrating ground frost is a recipe for busted walls.

On the walls of the bedroom I used my old friend, 10" rougher back V groove tongue and groove pine planking. I sealed it with Thompson's water seal on both sides and then nailed it up horizontally. I source this wood from Maine, where the lumber yard has it custom milled for them. At $.73 a board foot it is hard to beat price wise and gives the feel and character I'm looking for, that of a rustic cabin.

On the outside of the main divider wall I used an inexpensive, exterior grade siding made of press board. It comes in 7/16" thick 4x8' sheets that have shiplap overlapping edges. It is molded to resemble textured V grove planks and comes pre-primed. It is stable, moisture resistant, tough and cheap. When you paint it, it even looks pretty good.

I also got the floor down in the bedroom. We went back and forth as to what to use on this, nothing, concrete dye, porcelain tile. We decided to go with 2x2' raised basement underlayment panels, which use corrugated plastic base under a 3/4" weatherguard OSB interlocking panel to add some moisture protection. On that I used inexpensive interlocking laminate flooring with a styrofoam pad underneath. I've had good luck with the overall stability of the laminate flooring in a mudroom area that saw a fair amount of moisture from tracked snow in the past. This basement is dry as was proven last summer and over this past winter, a season of many freeze thaw cycles and good amounts of rain. I'm also planning to run a dehumidifier as well and the basement is a walkout, so is only partially below grade.

The last bit of project that I got done this week was to put in the initial section of ceiling between the main carrier timber and the bedroom wall. This section only had a 9" gap so rather than raise the ceiling to the bottom of the floor joist, I went from the bottom of the carrier beam over to the bedroom wall.

For the ceiling I wanted something that was light, bright, clean and easy to remove in case I needed access to anything above; wiring or such. After some though, I decided to go with vinyl soffit, which I've worked with a number of times before. I love the stuff. You just need ledges from which to span it and for than, I used simple pine planking that I routered a 45 bevel into to dress it up a bit. On the base of the beam, which is an old hemlock 4x6" that I sistered with pine 2x8" on either side and then a 2x4" on the underside channel. I put a pine 1x8" on the bottom side that overhung to the side of the wall, which gave me my ledge from which to hang the soffit up over. The end result is clean, looks good, was easy to install and is functionally great.

I'm trying to get creative when choosing building materials and build this area with an eye toward function. I'm using things that can maybe handle a little humidity or possibly moisture while keeping cost reined in. We'll see how it all works out but so far, so good. I really enjoy re-purposing things for uses other than that which they were intended. Bottom line is that it's fun and I finally am getting back into the swing of accomplishing something tangible.

Lots more to do. The bathroom is going to be interesting for sure. I've got some neat plans for materials for that one. Can't wait to get started.

Weekend Riding

Cathy and I had the opportunity to take advantage of the wonderful spring weather this past weekend and get in some good solid riding. A nice, quick, 40 mile road ride Friday and then a fantastic, longer group road ride on Saturday out to Sterling MA. We got some good rolling terrain and some nice views through the orchards of Harvard and the hills west.

It was nice to be out on these roads, ones that we frequented in the past but have not ridden much if at all in the past couple of years, Amazing how much I've forgotten about what a truly spectacular area we have to road ride in the northwestern suburbs and beyond. Winding, narrow, tree lined back country roads abound and on the weekends there is little motor vehicle traffic. Certainly one thing that I miss when in VT is the variety of paved road. Don't get me wrong, I love gravel, but when conditions are poor, it's nice to have options.

Anyhow, it was a nice ride for sure and felt great to be back into the swing of the road ride thing. We are getting some good miles in on the The Bikeway Source Cannondale Bicycles Synapse disc bikes. Currently they have 28c Vittoria Zaffiro Pro semi-slick tires on them, which are great for spring pavement if at the cost of a little weight and rolling resistance, but can also handle gravel without much complaint.

Yesterday, Cathy and I decided to do separate rides, so she headed off with a friend for some MTB in the Burlington's Landlocked Forest on her new Cannondale Bicycles Habit 27.5 120mm travel bike. I'd swapped the stock 60mm stem out for a 90mm to make the bike handle a bit more traditionally and also cut the bars down a couple of inches, bringing them within an inch (still longer) of what the bars on her fat bike are, which are wider still than the bars on her Scalpel. It made a huge difference and she really enjoyed the bike, getting a chance to get a real feel for it.

I opted to go for a big MTB XC loop, heading through multiple areas to try and find some new trail areas near Russell Mill in Billerica. I was fatigued from the start but moved along out to Estabrook Woods, through Carlisle Conservation and into Great Brook State Park. From there I made my way to Russell Mill Pond Forest, and area I've not spent much time riding. After looping around looking for signs of the new trails to no avail, I hopped out to Rangeway Rd and searched from that end. I found the ones in the town forest and traced the way back to Russell Mill, through a neighborhood. The other trail network is in the state forest, which I need to explore from the south end I think. Eventually I made my way back to Great Brook and Estabrook and home, a broken man.

Anyhow, a great weekend of riding and some good hours in the training bank. Another big week for the team, which is hopefully going a long way toward getting us into shape for the upcoming spring classic gravel season.

Back in Action

Last year for me was a down year, in terms of bicycle racing and training. I consciously knew that I was in for a bad year, statistically speaking, as I'd had a string of great season the previous few. I'd also been pretty much on since 2007 straight, without any breaks. This meant that I was physically and mentally tired of the constant preparation that goes into goal oriented cycling, or anything in life for that matter. 

As such, I decided to take it easy and only ride as much as I wanted to, within reason. Reason meaning that I did continue and complete my target of riding outdoors every day of the year. Spending so much time at our place in Kirby Vermont, which is situated near the top of a mountain on a gravel road, made for some creative rides when the weather went south, but still I managed to get through it. 

Racing last season saw very few goals. I targeted a fat bike race, the Rasputitsa gravel race, the Kenda Cup East MTB series and had the only overall cyclocross goal of trying to upgrade my race category to Category 1 through racing the Elite races at smaller New England based events. That may seem like a lot when it's written down in front of you, in fact I'm looking at it and saying the same thing to myself, but relatively speaking it was less than a normal year. All in all, things went pretty well and I attained most of my goals on the year. I had a good CX season going until a couple of crashes coupled with failing fitness convinced me to pull the plug.

So here we are a couple of months into 2016. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I feel like I'm way behind already. Sure, we've been riding but the quality has been challenged. As with the previous couple of years, Cathy and I have spent the bulk of the winter up north. This has meant lots of fat biking miles and some great adventures. This season is a completely different story. The fat biking, beyond a few limited outings, has been almost non existent. It's hard to ride snow when you don't have any. Worse, the temperatures and weather have been such that the gravel roads which we'd otherwise be ripping around on a snowless year, are often mud or ice. There was a point in January where we had to resort to night time road riding, in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. Still, there have been some good rides but not of the caliber or duration that I've grown accustom to getting throughout the winter months. 

The past couple of weeks have seen us spending more time south, back in MA. A couple weeks ago, when we had a record cold snap, the trail conditions for fat biking were spectacular in and around us in MA. That block of riding alone accounted for the bulk of the real quality miles we've managed to bank for the season thus far. It was great and helped turn things around for me in terms of motivation and determination. Nothing like 12 hours of fabulous riding snow in the course of four days to get you excited about riding again. Three good weeks in a row of increased time and distance and I was tired and ready for a rest week. Naturally, that week of rest didn't work out as I'd planned as we had conditions that were conducive to riding bikes. Additionally, active recovery when you are living on a mountain is a very relative thing, meaning I still got over 10,000' of gain in that week and rode every day.

That brings me to last week, when we got sick of seeing photos and post about our friends back in MA riding in sunny, 60 degree temps while we were up north battling ice, mud and runoff at 35 degrees. We packed up and headed south hoping for some better weather. It did not disappoint and although it was windy, the roads were dry and the temperatures were much nicer. 

Thursday and Friday were in the 40's which seemed almost tropical to us coming from the NEK. Sean from Cannondale had dropped his personal Cannondale Slate new road bike off at the Bikeway Source for us to try, The Slate is a road frame designed around smaller 650b (27.5") wheels running bigger 42c semi-slick tires. The resultant wheel/tire diameter is the same as that of a 700c wheel with a 23c tire; a normal road bike. The Slate is also equipped with a short 30mm travel Cannondale Lefty Oliver suspension fork. I'd been interested to see and give one a try for some time so when I got the bike on Thursday, I went out for a quick road spin to see what it could, or couldn't do. I was blown away by how quick and nimble it was. It looks more like a mountain bike with drop bars but on the road felt natural and comfortable. I hammered through a short, 25 mile loop on pavement and when I was done, was shocked to see how fast I'd gone. The Slate was no slouch when it came to the road, despite the fork being fully open the whole time.

Saturday I had a long ride planned with a small group and the temps slipped back into the 30's. Cool but dry and fine for a long road ride. We did just over four hours and about 74 miles and it darn near killed me. I felt tired going in but did that ever wipe me out. I made the mistake of rolling on the 32c Clement XPlor knobby tires mounted on the Cannondale Synapse carbon disc for riding gravel, which roll OK but compared to the road slicks the other two guys had, were a bit sluggish, pulling watts that I didn't have to spare. I quite literally limped back home the last five or so miles, in agony, barely able to pedal the bike.

Yesterday I'd decided to first of all, swap out tires on both of our Synapse to 28c semi slicks, something that should roll a whole lot easier. Next, we waited around until the sun came out and it warmed up. I was still chilled from the ride the day before and had little interest in starting before we were in the best weather of the day. This worked perfect and we were treated to some glorious sunny, spring like conditions. There was still a breeze but nothing quite as bad as the day before. We had a great ride along roads once frequently ridden by us, but ones we'd not really been on in a couple of years. It felt great to be outside riding without what seems every piece of clothing bundled on us. We moved along at a good steady clip and despite both being tired, got in a solid 50 miles. Another good day in the saddle marking a great weekend and a good block of quality rides.

So there we have it. I'm behind but hoping to come back up to speed quickly. I know what was missing last season in terms of the training rides that count the most. Those are back on the schedule in earnest this year, starting tomorrow in fact. I can tell right now that it is going to hurt. De-tuning and being out of shape, basically sucks because it hurts so much to come back from. The fat bike and legitimate winters ease that transition as you never really fall as far between seasons and also, ease back into things a bit more gradually. Not having that this year has made the gap much more pronounced. 

There is work still left to be done but at least I can finally say, that work has commenced.